The Chameleon(TC)

Beyond The Limits(BIL)

Man has reached the moon, he created Big Tankers, fighter Jets, Super Computers what not,.,

But in front of Nature and Nature's activity he is just nothing,we can compare the movie 2012. They have imagined and used nice graphics to show the disasters.

In nature some nice things daily happens, which are just amazing. Like The Cuckoo, Light Bee, Chameleon etc.,

Today again I am going to discuss one more amazing animal or we can say living being. That is Chameleon. After seeing video in YouTube I just thought to write blog on this animal. Really it is beautiful. Rarely we will find to see this animal. First of all identifying or finding this animal is difficult for us. Because it will change its body color according to the surrounding. It is because of its safety, and the survivability.

In physics color takes very important role. As we studied in Solid State Physics, Color centers, Which are mainly due to defects in crystal structure. Spectroscopy is mainly for colors. And even in nanotechnology after synthesizing, they will tune it for different colors. Of course man did it by accident. People are using those colors for many applications. Also in Hand-loom technology colors(Dye) are very important to give colors to our cloths.

Now about Chameleon: How the Color changes ?

Ans: Some chameleon species are able to change their skin colours. Different chameleon species are able to change different colours which can include pink, blue, red, orange, green, black, brown, light blue, yellow, turquoise and purple.

Some varieties of chameleon - such as the Smith's dwarf chameleon - use their colour-changing ability to blend in with their surroundings, as an effective form of camouflage.Colour change is also used as an expression of the physiological condition of the lizard, and as a social indicator to other chameleons. Some research suggests that social signaling was the primary driving force behind the evolution of colour change, and that camouflage evolved as a secondary concern.

Chameleons have specialized cells, collectively called chromatophores, that lie in layers under their transparent outer skin. The cells in the upper layer, called xanthophores and erythrophores, contain yellow and red pigments respectively. Below these is another layer of cells called iridophores orguanophores, and they contain the colourless crystalline substance guanine. These are particularly strong reflectors of the blue part of incident light. If the upper layer of chromatophores appears mainly yellow, the reflected light becomes green (blue plus yellow). A layer of dark melanincontained in melanophores is situated even deeper under the reflective iridophores. The melanophores determine the 'lightness' of the reflected light. These specialized cells are full of pigment granules, which are located in their cytoplasm. Dispersion of the pigment granules in the cell grants the intensity of appropriate colour. If the pigment is equally distributed in the cell, the whole cell has the intensive colour, which depends on the type of chromatophore cell. If the pigment is located only in the centre of the cell, cell appears to be transparent. All these pigment cells can rapidly relocate their pigments, thereby influencing the colour of the chameleon.

This much of biology and Physics and totally science occurs in Chameleon Body. But nobody knows why it happens. Simply they will compare with personalities. It is none of my business. So I am going to stop here.

mpshridhar

Reference.

Wikipedia for the explanation.

Google for Images,

YouTube for Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMT1FLzEn9I

The Cuckoo......

Cuckoo Egg Mystery:

We were not knowing that Cuckoo is having mystery in our childhood. We only know that it sings well in Monsoon. But in the year 1930 what makes Edgar Chance Research Ornithologist passionate about the singing bird Cuckoo.

It is also a unsolved question for science. We all know Study of birds is Ornithology.One who studies the behavior of birds is called Ornithologist. Indian famous ornithologist Dr.Salim Ali. If you want to know more about him then read his book: The Book of Indian Birds (Salim Ali, et. al.)

Cuckoo is widely famous for her singing. But behind the this beauty it hides its birth mystery. Actually mother cuckoo lays her egg in neighbors nest. Here in India crow will be having the nest, where the cuckoo lays her egg.What we saw in 3 Idiots film of Cuckoos behavior.Its all the way correct.

Why cuckoo will lay her egg in others nest, by killing others egg. Its because of its long time incubation. Normally birds need 21 days long incubation to hatch their eggs. But cuckoo is not capable to do incubation for 21 days. So no other way it has lay her egg down. Nature's gift is it will find the nest of others. here we have to appreciate the intelligence of cuckoo. Those are listed below

1) It will lay its egg when some other birds will also lay down their eggs. Means same season.

2) It will search the nest, where already eggs are present. Normally cuckoo will give three eggs (egg per day). It will push one egg from the neighbors nest, lays her own.Next day neighbor bird lay her egg. After this cuckoo will come and push another egg from the nest here both the eggs are change in size not more little, this can be identified by cuckoo, so that it will push other birds egg not its own, and lays its second egg.

3) 24 hour internal incubation for each egg so that they will take birth one day before the other birds egg and hatched chicks will push the remaining eggs, competition over. Here why the chicks will push the remaining eggs. Its because their voice and their size and the color is completely different from other birds chick. Advantage for chicks, loss for other bird. It will feed like its own chicken. But for other bird it will be very late to recognize that these chicks are not similar to me. But the science it will never understands. It will think, what is this these chicks are not similar to me. It will try to avoid the chicks. Thats all story over.

Now what science will say regarding this,

Only seven groups of birds in the world have evolved as brood parasites, laying their eggs in other birds' nests, and ecologists have long been fascinated by this behaviour as an example of evolution in action.

The Cuckoos are the most variable birds in social behavior and parental care: a few cuckoos are among the most social of ll birds and rear their young in a common nest; most cuckoos ae caring parents that rear their own young with some females laying a few eggs in the nests of others; while many cuckoo species are brood parasites who leave their eggs in the nests of other birds to rear, with their young maturing to kill their foster nestmates.

In The Cuckoos, Robert B. Payne presents a new evolutionary history of the family based on molecular genetics, and uses the family tree to explore the origins and diversity of their behaviour. He traces details of the cuckoos' biology to their original sources, includes descriptions of previously unpublished field observations, and reveals new comparisons of songs showing previously overlooked cuckoo species.

"The eggs are analogous to a bank note, in terms of the variety and complexity of markings, perhaps to make them very hard to forge by the parasite."

To find out exactly how Prinias detect the foreign eggs, Spottiswoode and Stevens set up more than 100 rejection experiments in southern Zambia, putting one Prinia egg into another's nest and waiting to see if the egg was rejected.

They also collected data to feed into a computer model to give them a bird's eye view of the world, using a spectrophotometer to measure egg colours and a digital camera to analyse the eggs' complex patterns.

In the past, this kind of analysis was tackled by humans comparing eggs by eye, but human vision differs hugely from that of a bird. Birds can see ultraviolet light and because they have four types of cone in their eyes, compared with three in humans, they see a greater diversity of colour and pattern.

Spottiswoode and Stevens found that Prinias are amazingly good at rejecting foreign eggs, and that they use colour and several aspects of pattern to spot the parasite's eggs. Mysteriously, however, they do not seem to use the scribbles that uniquely occur only on the Prinias' eggs.

The specific traits used to distinguish foreign eggs were exactly those found to differ most between host eggs and real parasitic eggs. This suggests that natural selection is currently acting to make Cuckoo Finch eggs better mimics of their hosts', and also that Prinias use the most reliable information available in making rejection decisions.

A small brown warbler the size of a wren, the Tawny-flanked Prinia (Prinia subflava) is common in most parts of Africa south of the Sahara, feeding on insects and other invertebrates. Its nest is a loosely woven oval, beautifully stitched among the leaves of small shrubs among the long grass.

The Cuckoo Finch (Anomalospiza imberbis) is an elusive and little understood bird, a touch smaller than a sparrow. The male is yellow and the female brown.

If the Prinia fail to spot the parasite's eggs it pays a heavy price. The Cuckoo Finch chick hatches first, is bigger, and quickly outcompetes to the death its host foster sibling. Soon the nest contains just one or two giant Cuckoo Finches. They are twice the size of the Prinia's own chicks and take much effort to feed.

mpshridhar

Reference:

1) Wildfilmhistory website.

2) www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0910486107

Difference between Day and Night(DBDN)

Light and the Dark Matter (LDM):

Whenever I start my blog, the idea is from my childhood. So today I am going to deal with the known word Light, opposite word of Dark or Dark matter whatever it is. Usually Human Kind will go to sleep when light is absent.We call it as night. In that night we were afraid of Devils and the Ghosts in our childhood.Its an easy way to our mother to stop us from the night play. Okay, we started to be in home. And we were thinking why school timing is in day time and why we sleep in night. Why we cant go outside the home in midnight.

We kept quite because nobody was going to answer our question, if someone answered also that is not the satisfactory one.Thinking this and doing home work of our school is quite better than to play in ground.But sometimes(Daytime) early morning playing football in the midst is such a wonderful experience. Really now we are missing.

For all these questions related to Light. Definition of Light is from wikipedia "Light is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is visible to the human eye (in a range from about 380 or 400 nanometres to about 760 or 780 nm).In physics, the term light sometimes refers to electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength, whether visible or not.Five primary properties of light are intensity, frequency or wavelength, polarization, phase and orbital angular momentum.Light, which exists in tiny "packets" called photons, exhibits properties of both waves and particles."

I dont know whether this will go to your mind or not.But it is necessary to keep in your mind. As definition says it is an electromagnetic radiation. Means it is the form of energy.
Small deviation here, whenever I want to take any decision two answers will come Yes or No. Yes is from right part of the brain and No is from left side of the brain. Side is not important here but the two answers.
Similarly When energy is there we will be active, when energy is absent we will become tired. Or If petrol(Energy source) is there in your vehicle it will be in motion. If not the rest occurs.In this way we feel light as food or petrol or energy. When it is there all the human kinds will be active means in day time. But in the absence we feel tiredness or inactive so that we fall in sleep in night.You may ask after lunch also some people will sleep.For them my answer is they are tired by work or trying to see night in day.This is all about Day or Light.

Dark Matter(DM):
Night we observe the darkness more. If we see the sky we can see many stars, not the Black Holes. Black hole is a last state of stars. It becomes black material after all the reactions becomes end. Such as Nuclear Fission in Sun.


But the fact is whatever we see it as black we assume it as Dark matter.But there matter exist just we cant see. Example is Half moon, it is not half with having half visibility. But other half part is also having matter. The full moon we can see once in a month. Why i am saying like this being Physics student its because of nature. God has given us the capacity to see only seven standard colors "VIBGYOR". For our sake people kept the name Visible Range. Refer the below figure.



Regrading this many research groups are working,
1)Why the night sleep is better for man kind?
2)Do we get any energy in daytime? Like plants from the Sun. Accept the melanin which is protein produces in our skin by sunlight.
3)Really the dark matter is present?
4)If we face 24 hour night then we will be alive or not?

Etc many questions are there to be answered.

mpshridhar

Touch Me Not (TMN)

Mimosa Pudica (MP): Botanical term of Touch Me Not plant.

When we were in fifth standard,our science teacher taught us different type or color soils are present in nature. For our school exhibition he brought some seven types of soil. Dont know from where he collected. But quite good to see those colored soils. Because we were knowing Black Soil and the Red soil. He brought for us Whitish, yellowish, greenish etc., Here it is not possible to mix chemical colors for soil(for different looking), if we mix also it is to determine by smell of soil. He explained to few students and told them to explain for all the visitors. Few Boys became busy to explain the things as told by teacher.

For us we need to set one unusual thing to all visitors. So we thought to bring Touch Me Not(TMN) tree from the nearest cities like Dharwad and Sirsi due to its nonavailability in Gadag. But we faced the difficulty in weather condition of Gadag. When we brought the plant from Sirsi, it is withstanding only for 2-3 days. Gadag is not suitable area for this plant. Next we moved for different experiment based on Physics.

Here I will stop my flash back, I will concentrate on TMN plant,other name for this plant is "Shyness Grass". It is the plant when we touches the plant, leaves goes inward. The leaves of the TMN protect themselves by performing a disappearing act.When a grasshopper or a locust lands on the plant, the rows of feathery, small leaflets that rise from either side of the TMN's stems, suddenly fold upwards and appear like unappetising twigs. If this does not make the insect lose interest and fly away, the leaves make a downward movement to expose their thorny stems, thus baffling the insect and driving it away.

This we called at that time Self Protection of course it is. But the Science behind this plants is hard stone.

TMN is well known for its rapid plant movement.

Like a number of other plant species, it undergoes changes in leaf orientation termed "sleep". The foliage closes during darkness and reopens in light.[1]The leaves also close under various other stimuli, such as touching, warming, blowing, or shaking. These types of movements have been termed seismonastic movements.

The movement occurs when specific regions of cells lose turgor pressure, which is the force that is applied onto the cell wall by water within the cell vacuoles and other cell contents. When the plant is disturbed, specific regions on the stems are stimulated to release chemicals which force water out of the cell vacuoles and the water diffuses out of the cells, producing a loss of cell pressure and cell collapse; this differential turgidity between different regions of cells results in the closing of the leaflets and the collapse of the leaf petiole.

This process is called Osmosis in Physics or Chemistry.

This characteristic is quite common within the Mimosoideae subfamily of the legume family, Fabaceae. The stimulus can also be transmitted to neighboring leaves. It is not known exactly why Mimosa pudica evolved this trait, but many scientists think that the plant uses its ability to shrink as a defense from predators. Animals may be afraid of a fast moving plant and would rather eat a less active one. Another possible explanation is that the sudden movement dislodges harmful insects.

This much I cant explain to my friends of Primary.



"For everything,nature has the answer,
For every answer, Science has the Question,
So dont worry, you will get the answer,
But,Why the life Exists?"





mpshridhar


References:

1)^ Raven, Peter H.; Evert, Ray F.; Eichhorn, Susan E. (January 2005). "Section 6. Physiology of Seed Plants: 29. Plant Nutrition and Soils". Biology of Plants (7th ed.). New York: W. H. Freeman and Company. pp. 639. LCCN 2004-053303. ISBN 978-0-7167-1007-3. OCLC 56051064.

2) Wikipedia

3) Google images.

Giant Magneto Resistance(GMR)-II

The Giant Magnetoresistive Head: A giant leap for IBM Research

For some people,
10 years = a decade.

For IBM Research,
10 years = a revolution.
It's called the Giant Magnetoresistive effect.

Ten years ago, it hadn't even been discovered. But now, after intense and dedicated research and development, "giant magnetoresistance" -- or GMR for short -- makes its mass-market debut in IBM's record-breaking 16.8-gigabyte hard disk drive for desktop computers using a special GMR structure developed at IBM called a spin valve.

Most people don't give their hard drive a second thought -- until they run out of disk space. If this describes you, read on. Once you understand the beauty of the GMR/spin valve head, you will never feel the same way about your hard disk drive again.

What is it?

The "giant magnetoresistive" (GMR) effect was discovered in the late 1980s by two European scientists working independently: Peter Gruenberg of the KFA research institute in Julich, Germany, and Albert Fert of the University of Paris-Sud . They saw very large resistance changes -- 6 percent and 50 percent, respectively -- in materials comprised of alternating very thin layers of various metallic elements. This discovery took the scientific community by surprise; physicists did not widely believe that such an effect was physically possible. These experiments were performed at low temperatures and in the presence of very high magnetic fields and used laboriously grown materials that cannot be mass-produced, but the magnitude of this discovery sent scientists around the world on a mission to see how they might be able to harness the power of the Giant Magnetoresistive effect.
IBM Research Arrives on the Scene

Stuart Parkin and two groups of colleagues at IBM's Almaden Research Center, San Jose, Calif, quickly recognized its potential, both as an important new scientific discovery in magnetic materials and one that might be used in sensors even more sensitive than MR heads.
Parkin first wanted to reproduce the Europeans' results. But he did not want to wait to use the expensive machine that could make multilayers in the same slow-and-perfect way that Gruenberg and Fert had. So Parkin and his colleague, Kevin P. Roche, tried a faster and less-precise process common in disk-drive manufacturing: sputtering. To their astonishment and delight, it worked! Parkin’s team saw GMR in the first multilayers they made. This demonstration meant that they could make enough variations of the multilayers to help discover how GMR worked, and it gave Almaden's Bruce Gurney and co-workers hope that a room-temperature, low-field version could work as a super-sensitive sensor for disk drives.

The Nitty Gritty

The key structure in GMR materials is a spacer layer of a non-magnetic metal between two magnetic metals. Magnetic materials tend to align themselves in the same direction. So if the spacer layer is thin enough, changing the orientation of one of the magnetic layers can cause the next one to align itself in the same direction. Increase the spacer layer thickness and you'd expect the strength of such "coupling" of the magnetic layers to decrease. But as Parkin's team made and tested some 30,000 different multilayer combinations of different elements and layer dimensions, they demonstrated the generality of GMR for all transition metal elements and invented the structures that still hold the world records for GMR at low temperature, room temperature and useful fields. In addition, they discovered oscillations in the coupling strength: the magnetic alignment of the magnetic layers periodically swung back and forth from being aligned in the same magnetic direction (parallel alignment) to being aligned in opposite magnetic directions (anti-parallel alignment). The overall resistance is relatively low when the layers were in parallel alignment and relatively high when in anti-parallel alignment. For his pioneering work in GMR, Parkin won the European Physical Society's prestigious 1997 Hewlett-Packard Europhysics Prize along with Gruenberg and Fert.
Searching for a useful disk-drive sensor design that would operate at low magnetic fields, Bruce Gurney and colleagues began focusing on the simplest possible arrangement: two magnetic layers separated by a spacer layer chosen to ensure that the coupling between magnetic layers was weak, unlike previously made structures. They also "pinned" in one direction the magnetic orientation of one layer by adding a fourth layer: a strong antiferromagnet. When a weak magnetic field, such as that from a bit on a hard disk, passes beneath such a structure, the magnetic orientation of the unpinned magnetic layer rotates relative to that of the pinned layer, generating a significant change in electrical resistance due to the GMR effect. This structure was named the spin valve.

Gurney and colleagues worked for several years to perfect the sensor design that is used in the new disk drives. The materials and their tiny dimensions had to be fine-tuned so they 1) could be manufactured reliably and economically, 2) yielded the uniform resistance changes required to detect bits on a disk accurately, and 3) were stable -- neither corroding nor degrading -- for the lifetime of the drive. "That's why it's so important to understand the science," Parkin says. "IBM's intensive studies of GMR enabled us to enhance considerably the performance of some low-field sensors."


The chief source of GMR is "spin-dependent" scattering of electrons. Electrical resistance is due to scattering of electrons within a material. By analogy, consider how fast it takes you to drive from one town to another. Without obstacles on a freeway, you can proceed quickly. But if you encounter heavy traffice, accidents, road construction and other obstacles, you'll travel much slower.

Depending on its magnetic direction, a single-domain magnetic material will scatter electrons with "up" or "down" spin differently. When the magnetic layers in GMR structures are aligned anti-parallel, the resistance is high because "up" electrons that are not scattered in one layer can be scattered in the other. When the layers are aligned in parallel, all of the "up" electrons will not scatter much, regardless of which layer they pass through, yielding a lower resistance.

The E-Impact

We've just explained our astounding new technological achievement and announced our new 16.8 Gigabyte product. Now we'd like to tell you how we envision its effect on your future. Computers are no longer simply relegated to the desktop. They are in our cars, our TVs, VCRs, Stereos and toasters. Increasingly, we are doing business and accomplishing everyday tasks over vast computer networks -- including, but not limited to, the internet. Our world is changing from the physical to the digital. This transformation is no small task and the transition from the present world to the digital one is highly dependent on smart, inexpensive and abundant digital storage.

One Step Beyond...

Imagine a world in which computers are ubiquitous: You will be able to record and store on "micro" hard disk drives anything you want, even everything you see and hear. Furthermore, you will have this information at your fingertips, eyes and ears. IBM Researchers are developing powerful technology that will enable you to use new kinds of information to improve the way we work and live. IBM Research technology will help you design life and business in the next millenium.



mpshridhar

credit:

IBM research website